Gravity

by Tal Bauer

“Hi,” I squeak. “I wear your number.” “Enchanté.” Bryce's grin grows. “I wear your number, too.”

Hunter looks down and meets my gaze. The world falls away, swallowed by those black holes that have been opening around me. The only thing left is him. Oh, calisse.

“Something has happened, Bunny. You’re spiraling. No, you’re cratering. The last time you played well was at the All-Star Weekend, and damn it, if somehow recreating whatever it was you and he found out there is going to shake you out of this death spiral, then that’s what I'm going to do for you. So today, Hunter Lacey became an Étoiles. And you’re both skating. Tonight.”

This hurts so fucking badly, but I shove the pain away. Focus. Your broken heart is not important. What did I expect from impossible dreams, anyway?

the man who looked me in the eyes and dared to risk everything because, somehow, I made his heart beat faster.

“I’m learning.” A kiss to my shoulder. “I want to speak French with you.” Another kiss. “I want to do everything with you.”

“You’re beautiful.” His voice is an octave deeper than before. The sound burrows into my bones. I want to arch into him, purr and close my eyes and let him carry me away. I have never felt beautiful until he said the words.

“Two-a-days, hmm? Like hockey practice?” He nods. “I have to get good for you.”

Hunter said I think we were meant to find each other. Non, nous étions fait l'un pour l'autre. We were made for each other.

I want to spend an endless amount of days and nights with him. I want every morning to begin with him in my arms, and every night to end with him in the same place.

If we can hold on to this, then he'll be all of my tomorrows and my forever.

he beams, so radiant it makes my heart just stop. “I love your smile,” I whisper. “It's the first thing that took my breath away when we met.”

“Bryce—” I've been saving this one, practicing it on the ice under my breath and before I fall asleep and when I'm showering. Trying to nail the accent so Bryce will understand what I'm saying. “Je veux être avec toi pour toujours.” I want to be with you forever.

“Tu me fais tourner la tête,” I tell him. “Je brûle de désir pour toi,” he breathes.

“Tu es tout pour moi.” You are my everything.

Tu es l'élu de mon coeur pour toujours. You are the one my heart chooses, forever.

“Need to see your face,” he says. One of his hands holds my thigh, his fingers digging into my skin as he rests his cheek against my knee and curses. “Need to kiss you. Bryce…”

Je t'aime, mon coeur. I want to say it. I feel it. It's bursting out of me. Je veux passer ma vie avec toi. I want to spend my life with you.

“Bunny is our capitane. Non, he is more than that. He is our best friend, our brother…” MacKenzie lets out a slow breath as he lays Bryce's hand on the mattress and covers it with his own. “We know Bunny. Calisse, we could tell he was heartbroken when he came back from Las Vegas. We knew he'd fallen in love there. We didn't know who he’d given his heart away to, but that didn't matter. We thought it was probably a man, but if he wasn't ready to tell us, he didn't have to. He’d still be our brother whether he did or did not. We told ourselves we would just be there for him, and his broken heart would heal in time.”

“I look at Bunny now and I see how happy he is, and that's all I need. You make him happy, Hunter. Très happy.” MacKenzie finally smiles. “Tu complètes l'homme. We like our Bunny happy. Mais oui, we like you and him together. You're a good guy, when you're not breaking his heart. So—” he shrugs “—you got a second chance from us. But, calisse, you had better not blow it.”

Weeks ago, I'd wondered: what does a secret like ours do to a team? Nothing, apparently. Nothing at all if we were never a secret and if we are more than a team. If we are family, then there aren't any secrets that need to be kept. There is only patience and kindness, and them watching over Bryce and me as we fall in love.

Bryce: Mon amour, it's agonizing to be here while you are there. I want to be by your side every moment of our lives. I wish I could place my heart and soul in your hands and live forever as close to you as I can be.

Me: You are with me each and every moment. My heart is in your hands. My heart, my life, my everything. Put your hand on your own heart, mon amour, and you'll feel mine beating next to yours.

At the darkest, most petrifying moment of my life, you were there. You have always been there.

I have something I need to say to you, but I want to say it. So as soon as I am able to speak again, I will. I'll hold your hand and I'll look you in the eye, and I'll tell you. Because I do, Hunter. I do, more than anything. More than everything.

He fits against me like he was made to live there.

“I love you,” I say again. “Tu es dans tous mes rêves.” You are in every one of my dreams.

“Je t'aime aussi, mon amour.” My voice is more breath than sound, a whisper strained through silence. But these words have shape and weight, and they move from my lips to Hunter's ears. “Je t'aime de tout.” Then we're kissing again, and crying, and his tears slide down my face as he holds me tight and says to me, “Tu es le seul pour moi, mon amour.”

“Bryce, I would lose the Cup every year for as long as I lived if it meant I got to live those years with you in my arms. And I would rather hang up my skates and never step on the ice again than take a risk with your life. There is nothing—nothing—that is worth risking you for.” He steps closer until we are forehead to forehead. “I am not the only one here who feels this way.”

I know what I have found: you. And… myself. I had to find you and fall in love with you, mon amour, to find who I really am.”

not a single person on this team would choose to sacrifice you for the Cup. And if it comes down to choosing—you or the Cup—we will all choose you. We nearly lost you once. We're not losing you again.”

I fly toward Hunter and we collide. He throws his arms around me, and the force of our hug takes us both to the ice. Be my date when we win the Cup? I'd asked him months ago, had dared to dream that this moment could actually happen, and now it's here, and we're here, and he's with me. He's with me and we are the champions.

Hunter wraps his arms around my waist and presses his forehead to mine. Twenty thousand eyeballs are staring down at us and millions more are watching on television. I don't care. Kiss me, mon amour. Kiss me and let's show the world what true love means. And, he does.

My hands wrap around Hunter's waist. We are at center ice, at the center of the team, the center of my life. The center of my beating heart. L'amour de ma vie, pour toujours.

I want them to know how much I care for their son. No, how much I love their son. In fact, I want everyone in the world to know how much I love Bryce. Most of all, I want Bryce to know that there is no end to my love.

Starlight that came to Earth. Like Bryce.

He holds my hand in his as he kisses me, slowly, deeply, like he's defining the word “love” with this single kiss. “Oui.”